6 Skype Alternatives Worth Considering

Skype might be the de facto choice for video and voice calls over the Internet. But here are other options you should explore.

1 of 6

Force of habit might make you default to Skype again and again in your office, without a second thought. After all, its usage is rampant -- and basic features are free.

Skype no longer releases the total number of its registered users, but the company reports that 300 million connected users is the average number of people using Skype on a monthly basis. Sure, chances are good that your coworkers, remote workers and business partners already have Skype IDs. And many people -- myself included -- would balk at the suggestion of abandoning the oh-so-familiar Voice-over-IP client, in favor of another VoIP setup, which includes its own rigmarole of inviting contacts to partake.

However, it is worth your time to poke around and check out the competition. For one thing, on the video call front, you can get a ton more for free from other vendors. Skype, now owned by Microsoft, limits you to a one-on-one video call for free -- and that's it. Otherwise, to initiate a call with three or more talking heads, you need to sign up for a Premium account, starting at $5 per month.

In a different vein, keep in mind that Skype has been scrutinized over security concerns. For some, depending on the nature of your calls and the kind of data shared, this might not be the biggest consideration. But if privacy and security are of paramount importance, you'll find services with built-in protection. No matter which vendor you choose, make sure to review the terms of service, so you know the data ownership ins and outs behind the scenes.

If you're up for giving a new service a spin, we found six Skype alternatives. The first, UberConference, tries to simplify the conference call experience.

I don't know how you feel, but dialing into a conference call with multiple parties can be a royal pain: You need to have a passcode or two at the ready to enter manually, only to encounter disembodied voices talking over one another and reintroducing themselves. With UberConference, invitees get an email and text message to join the call. The phone number they use to dial in authenticates them when they enter, no passcode necessary. UberConference's browser interface lets participants know who's talking at any given moment, and you can scope out everybody's details, thanks to its integration with LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

The call organizer can mute, add and nix callers -- and "earmuff" certain parties, if you want to talk privately on the fly. The free service lets you start with five people. A pro version, at $10 a month, bumps you up to a max of 40 people on a call, plus you can save all your conference calls as MP3s.

Thank you for the information. I've used a few group calling services, but Kuvicall has been my favorite by far. The whole experience is very personalized, because it is a smaller company. So far I haven't been bombarded with fees, advertisements, or pressured to spend a lot of money.

It's very affordable and I'm able to use Kuvicall to conference call my associates on a weekly basis. Best Skype alternative by far for voice calling.

Another option to consider is Kuvi. It is a group calling service that relies on your phone for the connection, so you don't get the dropped calls due to internet connection or data issues. The website is: kuvicall.com if you wanted to add it!

Thx for the great article Aoife! VSee is designed for creative teams to get things done - we did a lot of study on creative team work - from doing a design critique to hacking out some code. As a service for the community, at the bottom of http://vsee.com/, we create a link to all the video conference options: http://vsee.com/videoconferenc...

VSee is also unique in that it provides end-to-end encryption - where your conversation is always private and off the record. It doesn't go to any servers (like oovoo, hangout, tokbox, etc) where that server has access to your raw audio/video. VSee is HIPAA compliant and great for telemedicine: http://vsee.com/telemedicine where we serve 2M+ Americans to allow them to see their doctors from a webcam.

UberConference sounds like a very good alternative for conference calls with a small team, especially since it does not require a passcode. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard someone ask to re-send the passcode to a particular call (myself included). The "earmuff" feature sounds very interesting, especially if you want to share a quick, sensitive piece of information with just one party on the call. I wonder, though, if the "earmuffed" party can tell he or she is being blocked from hearing that part of the conversation when he or she hears silence from those involved in the private conversation.

Great article and great services. Quick correction on UberConference...the paid service for $10 gets up to 100 participants now, and the Free version can get up to 17 for now by linking social accounts, etc., to increase size.

If you thought consumerization killed UC, think again: 70% of our 488 respondents have or plan to put systems in place. Of those, 34% will roll UC out to 76% or more of their user base. And there’s some good news for UCaaS providers.